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Seek and you might find there’s more to the internet than Google

Now Microsoft has stepped up to have a go at producing a next-generation search engine. It aims to make the traditional search model (in other words, a long list of relevant web sites) look like something from the last century.

It’s not alone. Another start-up, Wolfram Alpha, came into being just a few weeks ago. Cuil (www.cuil.com) was launched in a blaze of publicity and claims to search three times as many pages as any of its competitors. So if you think the industry revolves around Google, think again. There are thousands of search tools out there, as you’ll see if you visit www.searchengineguide.com/searchengines.html.

But let me start at the beginning, and outline the reasons why a different way of mining the internet for information has become necessary.

First and foremost, the web has become a vast place. A year ago, Google (www.google.com) announced that its engineers had discovered one trillion unique web page addresses. It’s estimated that the indexable web, in other words, the bit that most of us can see, excluding specialist military and scientific content) runs to at least 25 billion pages.

So most of the so-called Search 2.0 technologies are designed to make sense of that vast array of information. If you do a Google search, many of the results that first appear may not be entirely relevant to the search query. That’s because Google makes its money from advertising, and the owners of some sites will have paid for their sites to be displayed prominently if a certain keyword is typed in. It’s great for Google’s revenues, but not so good if you’re the person doing the searching or, indeed, the owner of a site that doesn’t appear on the first page.

If you’re like me, you will also be irritated if your search for, say, a particular model of TV brings up a whole list of price comparison sites whose promises never quite live up to the hype.

Microsoft’s Bing (www.bing. com) is still in beta, or test, mode. But if you search for a flight, for example, it will pull schedules and other information from web sites, as well as offering information on hotels and weather. The aim is to provide the information you need with as few clicks as possible.

With Bing, Microsoft aims to take a bigger market share than Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com) before even considering tackling Google.

Wolfram Alpha, on the other hand, has been touted as a tool that could change the way we use the internet. Whether it can be a “Google killer” remains to be seen. The fact that its name sounds like a top-secret mission from the Second World War doesn’t help. But try it out at www.wolfram alpha.com. Be warned — it takes some practice.

One of the most interesting examples of Search 2.0 is Lexxe (www.lexxe.com). It’s perhaps the best at offering relevant results based on questions phrased in plain English, as opposed to keywords. Essentially it finds the answer to a query, instead of finding a web site on which the answer might be located. Try the question “Who was Louis-Nicholas Vauquelin?” on Google and Lexxe to see what I mean.

For some really unusual efforts at replacing Google’s blank white page, take a look at www.kartoo. com and www.chacha.com, which is a mobile search client that uses both electronic and human searchers to provide you with a result.

Obviously, from a business point of view, Google is still the place to be when it comes to search engine optimisation. Read more about improving your ranking at http://searchengineland. com and http://searchengine watch.com. But whoever manages to combine traditional search with Search 2.0 in a single application will make a fortune. It’s the holy grail of the industry. Until that happens, it’s fair to say that search is still in its infancy.

Rob McConnell is regional director for SQS NI. (www.sqs-uk.com). His email address is rob.mcconnell@sqs-uk.com